Well, another button has been pushed, so look out....

Sigh.

I'm going to paste what I've copied from Facebook.  The Museum I once worked at and loved, is up to their old tricks again, and frankly I am ashamed of them for doing this.  You wonder WHY I was driven so goddamned crazy while working there??? Because of THIS kind of bullshit, that's why.

Here is the article the Museum wrote on Facebook, in response to a very controversial issue happening right now:

Recent newspaper articles on the loan status of a barrack from Auschwitz that is on display at the Holocaust Museum have prompted many complaints to the Museum's Wall that the Museum is refusing to return these artifacts to Poland. We would like to clarify some points on this issue. In 1989, the Museum signed various 20-year loan agreements with Polish institutions for artifacts to display in the Museum’s permanent exhibition. Those agreements stated that the loans were renewable. However, following that agreement, new Polish laws were enacted requiring that items on loan outside of the country be returned every five years for inspection. To comply with this law, the Museum has returned thousands of artifacts, and working with our Polish partners, we have re-negotiated new loans for similar or identical items.

Due to the barrack's size and the complexity of its installation, removing and transporting it to Poland presents special difficulties, including potentially damaging the artifact. Both the Museum and our Polish partners have been actively discussing various proposals, and we remain committed to continue working with them to resolve this matter.
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And here is my response:
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Ahhhh...well, here we go folks...my buttons have been pushed about Holocaust issues all day long, but THIS is the EXACT kind of BS that I absolutely HATED when I worked there. The USHMM is in the WRONG, yet they don't want to ADMIT IT, and they want to bend the rules for themselves, yet allow no one ELSE to.

These barracks are located on the third floor of the Permanent Exhibition. Nesse Godin told me herself how she at age 12, would lay on the wooden barracks in 4 different camps, cold and scared, alone, and hungry, every day for 4 years of her life. I love those barracks. I have touched them.  I have smelled them.  I have imagined the people who had to lay there in filth for months before they died. They are the real thing, but they are not something to FIGHT OVER like this.

BOTTOM LINE:

Those barracks do NOT BELONG to the DC Museum. The Museum could most definitely CREATE ONE JUST LIKE IT as a CASTING OF IT like they have done with many OTHER artifacts, and save a whole lot of stupidity and VERY BAD PR from being negatively published in every newspaper, which is only increasing the anger of the Polish people. This is NO WAY TO RUN A MUSEUM ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST WHEN YOU PISS OFF A COUNTRY WHO HAS ALL THE ARTIFACTS ABOUT AUSCHWITZ!!!! YOU CAN BET THEY WILL NO LONGER ALLOW THE USHMM TO BORROW ANYTHING IN THE FUTURE BECAUSE OF THIS, and I would not blame them ONE BIT.

Now, Poland isn't exactly the Museum's favorite country for obvious reasons, so the politics of long-ago are, unfortunately and UNNECESSARILY, still in play here. There are many things we do NOT know about this issue, but this article they wrote is bullshit. They were supposed to give these barracks BACK in 2009!!!! You cannot just steal them from Auschwitz and expect people to say, "Ah well, that's fine, they can have them." WHAT A BUNCH OF IDIOTS!!!!!!

So this message is for Sarah Bloomfield and everybody who works at the Museum: GET THIS STRAIGHT, if the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's MISSION STATEMENT SAYS they will HONOR AND RESPECT the people who laid on those barracks and DIED in Auschwitz, then GIVE THE GODDAMNED BARRACKS BACK TO POLAND WHERE THEY BELONG. This Museum acts like they are the ONLY Museum about the Holocaust that MATTERS, and that is just a big fat load of BULLSHIT.

If I still worked there, I would be very ashamed of this. And very irate.
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How in the FUCK can this Museum pull such corrupt tricks like this, without PENALTY???  Poland changed a law about artifacts---so that means the previous law is NOT still in EFFECT or VALID anymore.  It has EXPIRED.  They were supposed to return those barracks in 2009!!! They've been fighting over this for THREE YEARS so far, and STILL they are refusing to return them to Poland.

I'm so angry about this I could spit nails.  I tell ya Stephen, if I still worked there, I'd be causing holy hell about this all over the place, as much as I possibly could.  I'd be writing to the Washington Post, the New York Times, I'd be contacting the Founders themselves, even Elie Weisel, to bitch about it, and I'd start a huge STINK like you wouldn't believe.  After all, I was a rabble rouser, that's what I do best.

This Museum is the YOUNGEST Holocaust Museum on the planet, yet they ACT like they are the ONLY one in existence, because they are in Washington DC.  NOTHING HAPPENED IN DC DURING THE HOLOCAUST, except bureaucratic heads in the sand who didn't GIVE A SHIT about it. So for them to act like their shit doesn't STINK is just ASSHOLE BEHAVIOR.  Poland has every right to those barracks, they are the ones who BUILT THEM, they are the ones (in addition to the Nazis) who are GUILTY OF GENOCIDE against the JEWS, and they are the rightful OWNERS of them at Auschwitz. Who the HELL does this Museum think it is, trying to CHANGE HISTORY LIKE THIS?

Yes, by doing this shit, they are actually FUELING THE HATE GROUPS and the NEO-NAZI GROUPS who still claim the Holocaust "never happened."  They are REWRITING HISTORY by trying to claim an artifact that they do not own, that is no longer located in its original place, where it BELONGS....this Museum tried to do this shit with Anne Frank's DIARY too, when I worked there, and lemme tell ya, I blew up so much STINK about it, they finally had to give it back to Amsterdam. The goddamned BASTARDS don't even THINK about how this is going to affect their own REPUTATION as being viewed as a REVISIONIST MUSEUM about the Holocaust.

It's fucking ridiculous and I cannot BELIEVE they are doing this shit.

The Auschwitz camp has been raped of most of its artifacts for DECADES, not only by THIS Museum, but by many others.  If they keep doing this shit, there won't even BE an Auschwitz to go and see anymore.  Nobody will believe it even EXISTED.  So the Museum in essence, is cutting off their own nose to spite their face, because if there IS NO AUSCHWITZ anymore, and all the artifacts are gone and spread around to all the Holocaust Museums everywhere, NOBODY WILL GO, NOBODY WILL SEE IT, NOBODY WILL BELIEVE IT HAPPENED, NOBODY WILL UNDERSTAND THE HUGENESS AND THE HORROR OF THE PLACE, AND NOBODY WILL FUCKING GET IT.

Then, nobody will donate money to keep the Museum going, and they will be OUT OF BUSINESS.

The Museum made a CASTING of the ovens. They are not the real ones, they are a CASTING of the real ones.  Why can't they do that with the barracks too??  It makes no goddamned sense to me, and frankly I am seriously considering contacting those newspapers ANYWAY, as a former EMPLOYEE of the place, to totally give them SHIT....there's nothing they can do to me anymore.  I don't work there. I've been gone 10 years from that place, they cannot touch me.  But ohhhh I could fuck them up GOOD.

This is NOT how you run a Museum about the Holocaust. You don't piss off Germany, and you don't piss off Poland.  Otherwise, you're fucked for future artifacts that you MAY HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO BORROW but no longer can.

What a bunch of goddamned idiots in that place.  Nothing has changed since I worked there.  Nothing.  Time has a funny way of making things turn into "fond memories," and going back there a few weeks ago for my friend's Memorial service was turning my glasses a shade of rosey...but not anymore.  Not after this.  I now freshly remember EVERY stupid thing they did when I worked there, and I remember my anger and upset and rabble rousing about it all, like it was yesterday.

I am ashamed of this Museum for what it's doing.  I'm sick to DEATH of the bullshit in this world.

I'm going to go breathe in a brown paper bag for awhile to stop my head from exploding.

I just had to get it all outta me. There's a whole hell of a lot more inside, but this is a good start.
Love, Rebecca